Alarcón rehashes familiar issues
U.S. embargo, imprisoned journalists and immigration top Cuban official’s list
By Daysi Calavia-Lopez
Latino Reporter Staff
It was billed as a conversation between a top Cuban government official and a Cuban-American journalist, but it turned into a debate over contentious issues that have long strained U.S.-Cuba relations.
Before a group of journalists and media executives on the opening day of the NAHJ convention, Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba’s National Assembly, squared off against Columbia University journalism professor and New York Times contributor Mirta Ojito, a Cuban exile who left the country in 1980 as part of the Mariel boatlift.
They covered a familiar list of issues: imprisoned Cuban journalists, immigration and the U.S. embargo.
On imprisoned Cuban journalists
“Some individuals have been imprisoned and executed but not because they were writing or expressing different views about the government. They were working for the CIA, being paid by the U.S. government.
“They were journalists but they were not independent journalists. They were dependent on the foreign power. They wanted to destroy and undermine my country. We have the right to defend ourselves.”
On immigration
“Why doesn’t the U.S. create a Mexican, Dominican or Haitian Adjustment Act? You wouldn’t have a place to have your convention. All the Latins would move to the U.S.”
On the embargo
“I hope the U.S. would realize that the law is no longer relevant. The U.S. has pretended for many years to dominate us. The embargo is a policy that has been condemned year after year, and it’s not working.”
NAHJ members had mixed reactions to Alarcón’s remarks.
“Alarcón just isn’t relevant these days,” said Luisa Yanez, a Miami Herald reporter who has covered the Cuban exile community in Miami. “Cuba has been a backburner issue for U.S. policymakers since Sept. 11.”
“If NAHJ wanted real political movers and shakers, we should have gotten Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez or Bolivia’s Evo Morales. Their presidencies are signaling radical changes in the hemisphere,” she said.
Alarcón appeared at the NAHJ convention via satellite from CNN’s Havana bureau.
The effort to attract Alarcón as a speaker to this year’s convention began earlier this year when NAHJ officials got help from South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editor Earl Maucker. He reportedly hand-delivered an invitation during his visit to Cuba in January.
The Sun-Sentinel is one of only a few U.S. media outlets permitted by the Cuban government to operate a bureau on the island.
Alarcón, 69, has long been the Cuban government’s point man in dealing with the international media. And he’s no stranger to U.S. media outlets.
He’s been interviewed on most of the major television networks, including CNN, NBC’s “Meet the Press” and CBS’s “60 Minutes.”
Alarcón has been a top official in President Fidel Castro’s long-running dictatorship, serving as Cuba’s ambassador to the United Nations from 1966 to 1978. He became president of the National Assembly of the People’s Power in 1993.
Contact Daysi Calavia-Lopez at dcalavia@bellsouth.net.
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